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Rapid top–down regulation of plant C:N:P stoichiometry by grasshoppers in an Inner Mongolia grassland ecosystem

Oecologia volume 166, pages 253–264 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

Understanding how food web interactions alter the processing of limiting nutrient elements is an important goal of ecosystem ecology. An experiment manipulating densities of the grasshopper Oedaleus asiaticus was performed to assess top–down effects of grasshoppers on C:N:P stoichiometry of plants and soil in a grassland ecosystem in Inner Mongolia (China). With increased grasshopper feeding, plant biomass declined fourfold, litter abundance increased 30%, and the plant community became dominated by non-host plant taxa. Plant stoichiometric response depended on whether or not the plant was a grasshopper host food species: C:N and C:P ratios increased with increasing grasshopper density (GD) for host plants but decreased in non-host plants. These data suggest either a direct transfer of grasshopper-recycled nutrients from host to non-host plants or a release of non-host plants from nutrient competition with heavily grazed host plants. Litterfall C:N and C:P decreased across moderate levels of grasshopper density but no effects on C:N:P stoichiometry in the surface soil were observed, possibly due to the short experimental period. Our observations of divergent C:N:P stoichiometric response among plant species highlight the important role of grasshopper herbivory in regulating plant community structure and nutrient cycling in grassland ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the grasshopper specimen identification by Dr. S.G. Hao. Dr. C.M. Clark and two anonymous reviewers are appreciated for their insightful comments on our manuscript. We thank W.J. Wu, N.J. Yu and S.Y. Zhang for their field or laboratory assistance. Funding for this work came from National Natural Science Foundation of China (30830026 and 30870407) and a State Key Basic Research Development Program (2007CB106801); J.J.E. was supported by a National Science Foundation grant (DEB-0618193).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China

    Guangming Zhang & Xingguo Han

  2. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Guangming Zhang

  3. School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    James J. Elser

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  1. Guangming Zhang
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  2. Xingguo Han
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  3. James J. Elser
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Correspondence to James J. Elser.

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Communicated by Mercedes Bustamante.

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Zhang, G., Han, X. & Elser, J.J. Rapid top–down regulation of plant C:N:P stoichiometry by grasshoppers in an Inner Mongolia grassland ecosystem. Oecologia 166, 253–264 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-011-1904-5

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Keywords

  • Stoichiometry
  • Herbivory
  • Nutrient cycling
  • Steppe
  • Grasshopper outbreak